Courtesy Of Robert Angeloni
During this interview, I was given the opportunity and the pleasure of knowing my uncle’s (by marriage) story of his family’s voyage to Canada to start a new life. The purpose of this interview was to achieve a greater understanding of my family’s culture and history. The method I chose is an in person interview with prepared questions which was recorded on my cellphone.
Here is a Robert Angeloni’s Bio and a tribute he wrote about his father “Remo Angeloni”.
Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to gain a deeper understanding of my family’s culture, values, and history through the process of storytelling and reflection. By conducting this interview, my goal is to explore how personal experiences, traditions, and memories have shaped my family’s identity over time. This project also allows me to preserve and document important aspects of our heritage that might otherwise be forgotten or left unrecorded.
The method I chose for this assignment is an in-person interview using a set of prepared questions designed to encourage open and meaningful conversation. During the interview, I will record and take notes to accurately capture both the stories and emotions being shared. In addition to the oral history, I will collect and document a small personal archive, such as photographs, letters, or meaningful family items, that help illustrate the themes discussed in the interview. Together, these methods will help create a rich, personal record of my family’s history and the cultural values that continue to shape us today.
| Questions | Interviewee 1 |
| Date of Interview | October 14, 2025 |
| Name of Interviewee(use initials if the person wants to remain anonymous; only person conducting interview knows the person’s identity) | Robert Angeloni |
| 1. What age group/generation are you in? | Baby Boomer 69 years old |
| 2. QUESTION 2 & FOLLOW UP What first brought you to Canada? | My parents worked in a restaurant. My family had a restaurant, and it still does to this day. It’s a restaurant in Rome. I don’t know if you ever knew that it’s a family restaurant, so everybody went there, and it was not in the tourist area. They wanted to immigrate, and we had an uncle here that already lived in Montreal, funny enough, and he was responsible for sponsoring the whole family. |
| Were you already acquainted with anyone in Canada before you arrived? family? A)Were you already aquainted with anyone in Canada before you arrived? Family? B) Where did you first arrive, and when? C)How ( Means of Transit)D)Who did you come with? | In the 50s after the war, my parents worked in a restaurant. My family had a restaurant and still has a restaurant to this day in Rome. It’s a family restaurant, so everyone worked there, not in the tourist area of Rome but just outside the residential area. After the war Italy was in bad shape. They wanted to immigrate. We had an uncle here that already lived in Montreal, and he was responsible for everyone coming over. My mother and her sisters were the primary immigrants, and that was in the early 1950s. Yes, we’re in the late 30s. I believe my mother had me when she was 40, which back in those days was a little late, so I was the smallest of a bunch of cousins, so all my cousins were seven, eight, or nine years older than I was, and they all immigrated to Italy and were born as toddlers or, for some of them, teenagers in Canada. Well, they were born in Italy, and my parents were from the coast of Italy the northern east coast of Italy on the Adriatic side so funny enough my my father’s family the Angeloni’s they had a restaurant on the East Coast as well they had a campground they had a bit of a Hotel Campground in the summer people go and rent campgrounds because there is the Campground right near the ocean and then there is my mother’s side which was originally from that area. My mother’s relatives moved to Rome where they started a restaurant which was in the 1940s when the restaurant first opened. I remember my parents would say that the restaurant was open during the war and the bombing and the war left Rome and the bombing a little bit alone so the rest of my family would serve American soldiers in that restaurant. At 17 we all went back to see the family and everything and they of course here I am 17 years old in Rome and it looked pretty cool by then I guess this is in the 60s they had already been here for a while in Canada. I learned how to visit all of these tourist spots because some of my cousins in Rome would say okay today you’re going to go to the Vatican and visit.” My parents first arrived in Canada by boat to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the early 1950s. It was a big risk to leave everything behind and leave part of your family behind as well. I remember the story of my mother, who came across on a ship, and I think it was almost winter, to Halifax, which is where they took a train from Halifax to Toronto, so my mom came all the way from Halifax to Toronto. and it was freezing cold compared to Europe. The trains were a lot more sophisticated in Europe, so when they got here, they weren’t used in the cold.My mother cried the whole way because the trains were like cattle cars because in Europe people got around by train a lot more than in Canada. |
| How old were you when you or your family immigrated? From which part of Italy? | My parents immigrated from Rome in the early 1950s. Originally they were from the Town of Ceresa before moving to Rome. I was born in Toronto a few years later in 1955. |
| What was the journey to Canada like? | It was a big risk to leave everything behind and leave part of your family behind as well. I remember the story of my mother, who came across on a ship, and I think it was almost winter, to Halifax, which is where they took a train from Halifax to Toronto, so my mom came all the way from Halifax to Toronto. and it was freezing cold compared to Europe. The trains were a lot more sophisticated in Europe, so when they got here, they weren’t used in the cold. My mother cried the whole way because the trains were like cattle cars because in Europe people got around by train a lot more than in Canada. |
| 4. What do you remember about your parents first impression about | The first obstacle would be the language barrier. Of course, because they did not know English, but there were a lot of Italian immigrants, so they kind of stuck together. We lived at St. Clair and Dufferin in Toronto, which was kind of a Little Italy at the time, so there were some relatives and a lot of Italian neighbors, so my dad got a job unloading trucks, and he had his brother here by then, and they worked together partly. It was very community-oriented at St. Clair and Dufferin because of the language and the culture. There were a large number of Italian immigrants in Toronto back then, and I grew up with them. It wasn’t easy; we lived two families to a house, one family upstairs and one family downstairs, and I guess they rented back then to afford a new house and move out of there into the suburbs, which was standard by the ’60s. My first school was St. Clair, St. Mary’s of the Angels, which is at St. Clair and Dufferin. So it was tough for them to get going to start. My mom got a job with your sister again; they are very family-oriented. They work making drapes: my mom and her twin sister. They worked there for 20-25 years until they retired. My dad worked at Loblaws loading trucks, and then he worked at a school during night shifts. As a caretaker, he then became a head caretaker of the Catholic school and Toronto. So it was a union job with good wages, but by that time we had already moved to the suburbs. So they stuck together, my parents. They overcame the challenges culturally and financially, and they stuck together. The Roman Catholic Church had a big part to do with it, so I had no complaints personally. I didn’t really suffer much compared to them, because I was born at the right time, I guess, and I had all these older cousins around me looking after me, making sure I got to school on time and all that. |
| 5. Is there any items That are significant that they brought back | Aside from a few stray photographs that they brought back from Italy, they didn’t really bring back any artifacts or travel with anything. I mean, they lived in Rome for several years before coming here, so besides photographs there weren’t really any heirlooms or any artifacts. |
| 6 Did you exchange any letters in Italy? | I myself didn’t because again I wasn’t close to them even when I started to visit; then I was going back and forth after I got married to visit relatives, so we didn’t really keep in touch that much at that time. But then I found out as I got older that my aunts and uncles in Italy would begin using Facebook. There wasn’t a lot of ongoing connection with the old country, which was unfortunate, but my parents made the odd phone call, but not significantly. they weren’t really big writers |
| 7. Where is “Home” for you and why? | The town that my family grew up in is called La Cerasa, which means “cherry” or “rose.” I’ve been back and have a picture the beside the sign. And again, all of those small towns in Italy are shrinking because there’s not enough work and not enough space for school and careers, so you find a lot of those small towns half empty, which is unfortunate because a lot of those family homes are still there, and people just go back and visit. We never really did, but. It’s funny how time and culture change, but that’s where the work is. |
| 8. Looking back on this experience, is there anything you or your family would have done differently? | I don’t know if they ever regretted any decisions that they made starting to come here in the first place or any decisions at Career Home: once they got here, they just went with the flow. They grew up with a fairly modest upgrade, and when my dad got the union job for the school board, it was a good source of income, and by then they were stable. My mom still kept working; my grandmother would as well. |
| 9. Is there anything further you would like to add to the story? | In the early days, they took care of me and a couple of my smaller cousins. So I really learned how to speak Italian before I even spoke English; I had to learn them both at the same time because you have the answer, and uncles and parents all speak Italian, and friends and younger cousins speak English, but again, a lot of real, you know, old families have passed away. My parents and aunts are not going, so there are not a lot of people that I can speak to. Some of my cousins are even younger than me, and the older ones try to communicate in Italian, but English is their primary language. When I do go back and visit, the last time I was here was 8 or 9 years ago, and you go and you start talking to relatives, it comes back to you. The more you use it, the more comes back to you; you hear conversations, and you pick up things, but I can see if you don’t use it, you lose it. |
Analysis
A lot of the readings don’t apply to my family’s experiences due to the fact that they primarily moved after WWll took place. The question I’ll be discussing is question #4, talking about the first impressions of Canada and the obstacles encountered coming to Canada as immigrants.
My uncle talks about how it was a big risk to leave everything behind and leave part of his father’s and his mother’s family behind as well. His mother came across to Canada on a ship, to Halifax, and then from Halifax they took a train to Toronto. “So my mom came all the way from Halifax to Toronto, and it was freezing cold compared to Europe,” Robert explains. He also talks about how they weren’t used in the cold and harsh weather conditions. His mother cried the entire journey because the trains were like cattle cars because in Europe people got around by train a lot more than in Canada. European society, especially in Rome, seemed more advanced in some aspects than could be found in Canada. The fact that one of the first impressions was that Robert Angeloni’s mom felt like cattle in cattle cars I do not think was very positive, coupled with the cold and not knowing the language. Fortunately, there was a group of siblings and spouses who made the journey together, and this would have given some comfort to the travelers. Toronto, St. Clair, and Dufferin was a hub of immigrants from Europe. Robert’s parents settled into Little Italy, and this allowed for friendships, support, and ease of assimilation. As it helped the family find work and live together in a house so that they could work and save money to eventually be able to buy a house for themselves. The impression I received was that moving to the suburbs was a stepping stone for immigrants so that they could buy a house and not be in the city.
Reflection
Conducting the interview for this project was very insightful and I learned a lot more than I expected — not just about my uncle’s family’s past, but about what it actually means to leave everything behind and start over somewhere completely new. Hearing my uncle’s stories made me realize how much sacrifice and courage it took for my family to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s. It’s one thing to hear that people “came for a better life,” but another to understand the details, being cold for hours on the train from Halifax to Toronto, barely speaking English, and living with two families in one house just to save up enough to move to the suburbs. It made me appreciate the comfort and opportunities I have now that were built from their hard work and persistence.
I also learned a lot about the sense of community that existed among Italian immigrants. The way my uncle described the St. Clair and Dufferin area, full of relatives and neighbors who helped each other out, showed me how important cultural connection is when you’re far from home. It wasn’t just about surviving — it was about rebuilding a sense of belonging in a new country. This really stood out to me because it reminded me how much culture, family, and shared experiences shape who we are today.
On a personal level, this project helped me understand my role as part of that ongoing story. I used to take my background for granted, but now I see it differently — I’m part of a chain of resilience and adaptation. It also gave me a better appreciation for oral histories and how important it is to record them before they’re lost. If I hadn’t done this interview, these memories might’ve just faded over time. Now, I have a clearer picture of where I come from and a stronger connection to my family’s roots.
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